Manhattanhenge

Su Hui couldn't figure it out, "Because my acting skills are too bad."

Ning Yixiao smiled, "It's enough to be good-looking, and you don't need to enter the entertainment circle."

Su Hui's ears turned red when he praised his looks, especially on this occasion.He shrank into the quilt and watched Ning Yixiao fully dressed, as if he was about to go out.

"Are you in a hurry to go back to the Bay Area?" The morning light and tree shadows shrouded Su Hui's face through the large glass window, like a painting.

Ning Yixiao shook his head, "Didn't you say you want to feed the birds?" His finger tapped the dial, "Six o'clock, there's still time."

Su Hui nodded immediately. In fact, Ning Yixiao didn't say anything special, but he was surrounded by joy.

Quickly dressed and washed, Su Hui wanted to go downstairs immediately, but was caught by Ning Yixiao, who ate a small piece of cake according to his order before going down together.

In the early morning of winter, the chirping of birds is not as noisy as in spring and summer, and some of them appear from time to time, which are crisp and melodious.The two walked side by side on the forest path, not very close, but Su Hui thought it was as sweet as hugging and kissing.

"Have you ever seen a red-headed woodpecker?"

Su Hui turned his head to ask Ning Yixiao, but he shook his head in denial.

"No."

"Then you said there might be some here."

"As the staff said, it's my first time here too."

Su Hui looked towards the lake, and there was a small group of wild ducks floating on the lake. He was very happy, and couldn't help pulling Ning Yixiao's wrist, "Look over there, these should be mallard ducks."

"Isn't it a mandarin duck?" Ning Yixiao asked.

"No way, are there mandarin ducks abroad?"

The two of them were not sure, chatting with each other, Ning Yixiao conjured a small bag of food from somewhere, and handed it to Su Hui, who used the food to attract many birds, including sparrows, tits, and wild geese. .

"There are more and more." He squatted on the ground to feed, turned his head with a smile, "Ning Yixiao, look at it..."

The moment Su Hui looked back, Ning Yixiao was sitting on the iron bench next to him, with a small blue robin resting on his right shoulder, which was the first time Su Hui saw it.

"It's so beautiful..." He wanted to get closer, but he was afraid of scaring it, so he took out his phone and took a photo.

The moment the shutter was pressed, Ning Yixiao happened to turn his head to look at the little bird on his shoulder, with a handsome profile.

Sure enough, right after the photo was taken, Ning Yixiao wanted to touch the bird's head, but scared it away as soon as he stretched out his hand.

It's really the same as Su Hui.

"Show me the photos you took." Ning Yixiao didn't intend to get up.

Su Hui walked over, "I think it's not bad." He handed the phone to Ning Yixiao, "Look, it's very beautiful. The robin is the 'bird of God'. I thought I couldn't meet it in winter, so beautiful .”

He said to Ning Yixiao in a very sincere tone, "This is a good sign, you will definitely go very smoothly this year, and your wish will come true."

Ning Yixiao curled his lips and returned the phone to him.

Do you really want what you want?

"Is this place nice?" He asked Su Hui, "You should like this kind of place very much."

"Yeah." Su Hui nodded, "Sometimes I wish I could hide in this kind of place. No one needs me, so let me stay alone quietly, take a walk by the lake, lie on the lawn in a daze, whatever. A lot of useless things, which is good. I'm afraid of being pushed, I hate being pressed for every decision, living in the city, people are pushing me every second, it's exhausting."

Ning Yixiao knows him very well, Su Hui's life needs blank spaces and spacers.

If you press too hard, he will only choose to run away and disappear, just like a bird.

"The professor sent me a message, asking if I want to go with them." Su Hui said while replying to the message.

Ning Yixiao got up, planning to drive him to the airport.

"Your professor looks nice."

"Really? He is very kind." Su Hui couldn't help but sigh, "If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't be where I am today. I can still be a teaching assistant in such a good school. I dare not even think about it."

This was the first time that Su Hui did not resist talking about what happened after they broke up.

But Ning Yixiao was actually confused. Even if the relatives in Su Hui's family passed away one after another, he would not be reduced to this level. What happened in it.

He once asked Carl to find someone to investigate, but across the ocean, it was difficult to fill in the information gap all at once, and he had to rely on contacts for contacts, so far he has not received very effective information.

Su Hui didn't mention it all the time, and even avoided it on purpose. Asking him would have no result and would only be counterproductive.

But there are only a few possibilities that Ning Yixiao can think of. The Ji family is gone, and the only beneficiary can only be Xu Zhi.

What method he used to swallow all this is unknown.

Su Hui continued to praise Professor White, Ning Yixiao came back to his senses, smiled and said, "There are many good people around you."

Su Hui recognized this very much, probably because he was in the manic period, when he spoke, his thinking was obviously faster than his speech, and he said what came to his mind without thinking, and his speech was very fast.

"That's right, the head nurse was also very kind to me before, caring about me like a family member and taking good care of me..."

Having said that, he suddenly stopped.

Ning Yixiao discovered this, but pretended not to hear it.

"Because I was seriously ill for a while, so I was hospitalized." Su Hui quickly walked over, "By the way, where is your car parked?"

If it was an ordinary hospitalization, Su Hui would not be so nervous.

Ning Yixiao thought, maybe there was something wrong with the direction of their investigation at the beginning. Since Xu Zhi dared to do it, he would definitely deal with the aftermath very carefully. It was difficult to find out with his domestic resources.

We should start from Su Hui's experience backwards.

These are always plan B. If possible, Ning Yixiao is still willing to listen to Su Hui's confession. After all, it is not ethical to investigate his ex behind the scenes.

When they arrived at the airport, Su Hui directly joined the professor and his party. Ning Yixiao also went up to greet everyone, and handed Professor White a business card of his own. Out of politeness, the professor returned his own. After saying some polite words, he said goodbye and left.

Su Hui watched him leave the terminal, feeling a little lonely.This emotion lasted until he got on the plane. He obviously didn't sleep all night, and he didn't feel tired at all during the flight. He kept thinking about everything last night in his mind.

No one can say that he has habitually controlled the desire to express in his own mind, talking to himself like a split, in order to consume the excessive energy during the manic period.

It was already afternoon when he returned to New York, Su Hui went back to the apartment alone, the ice cream greeted him very warmly, rubbing and licking, making Su Hui dumbfounded.

"Are you so warm to everyone?" Su Hui tapped his wet nose with a fingertip, "Every guest is like this?"

Ice Cream barked and wagged its tail.

"Really." Su Hui pretended to be angry, "Then you want to hug someone else?"

Ice Cream hesitated for a moment, but still barked.

"Then go and hug someone else." Su Hui got up, but wherever he went, the ice cream would follow him, never leaving him.

"Stupid puppy."

Taking advantage of enough energy and close to the peak work efficiency, Su Hui ran to both ends of the studio hotel every day, working overtime to make Bella's installation art, because this time the volume is very large, covering an area of ​​nearly [-] square meters, so Su Hui also brought four or five students to do it together.

He looked at Chloe's photobook in advance, made many adjustments, and personally hung each work, calling out the best lighting for them to view.

In the end, even Chloe couldn't help praising, "Eddy, you shouldn't just be a teaching assistant."

Su Hui smiled, "The teaching assistant is also very good, I don't really care about the title, it doesn't matter if you have one or not."

"She means that you should be a great artist." Bella smiled, "Let's go eat delicious food after a while, how about treating it as a celebration banquet? This exhibition is a collaboration between the two of you, now The media are reporting that it is a combination of two art forms."

Chloe nodded and invited Su Hui, "I agree, let's go together."

Just as he was talking, a familiar figure approached, "Dinner? I'm going too! How can you not take me with you?"

"Luka, you didn't come until it was almost over." Bella pretended to complain.

"I told me to call me Jingming, Miss Jones." Jingming smiled, "Isn't there something to delay me? It's okay, you can't abandon me."

"Then just take it with you."

In this way, Su Hui followed Bella and the others to a restaurant in Hudson Square. There were many people there. Bella knew the owner of the restaurant and reserved the best seat for her, overlooking the entire Hudson. Night view of the square.

"The wine here is good." Bella handed the coat to the waiter, "Look at what you want to eat."

Su Hui didn't drink very well, and was afraid that he would do something terrible when he was drunk, so he only ordered a low-alcohol cocktail.

Seeing his cocktail being served, Jing Ming thought of something interesting, "I asked Shaw out for a drink some time ago, and he said he had work to do the next day, so I lied to him, saying that it would be fine to drink some cocktails."

Chloe already guessed, "So what did you order for him?"

"A cocktail called Tomorrow." Jing Ming suppressed a smile, "It is made by mixing various spirits. I ordered him the super-enhanced version. Ordinary people can pour it in just one glass, but Shaw drank five glasses."

Bella's eyes widened, "Drinking so well? Have you poured it?"

"Of course, I don't even look at the name. The reason why it's called tomorrow is because it's the next day when I open my eyes after drinking this cup."

Everyone laughed for a while, but Su Hui thought of Ning Yixiao's broken state at that time, and that was the first time he saw Ning Yixiao drunk.

They ate and chatted, Su Hui liked chatting with them very much, they were like-minded, and he was in high spirits recently and needed to vent his desire to express, so he talked a lot at once.

Chloe was keenly aware of something, "Eddy is in good shape today, what happy things happened recently?"

Su Hui hesitated for a moment, poured a small half cup of Jingming's tequila, drank it down, and then confessed his illness.

"I have bipolar disorder. The few times I met everyone, I was in the depressed period, but now I am in the manic period, so it may seem like a different person."

The other three paused, and the topic stopped temporarily, but this unbearable silence did not last long.

"I know, I have a friend who also has this disease, but she is more exaggerated than you. Once knocked on my door at three o'clock in the middle of the night." Bella laughed and said, "We finally jumped into the sea to swim together."

"Three o'clock in the middle of the night?" Jing Ming felt incredible.

Bella nodded and ate a piece of cornflakes, "But she's super cute."

"You've had a hard time," Chloe said.

Bella nodded, "I have such a friend, I may know more than others, you must be very strong to survive."

Su Hui smiled, and Jing Ming patted him on the shoulder, "So I say that you, like Ning Yixiao, are the kind of people with particularly tenacious vitality."

is it?

Su Hui was not sure.

But it feels good to be honest, it's not that difficult, and it's satisfying to be accepted naturally.

Half an hour later, he began to regret that he drank that half cup of tequila too much, and he felt a little dizzy, so he got up and went to the bathroom to wash his face. When he came out, he suddenly missed Ning Yixiao very much, so he walked to the open-air smoking area of ​​the restaurant , even though he did not bring a cigarette.

It's good to get some air, just blow on these not-so-good thoughts and disperse them.

Leaning on the railing, Su Hui looked down, and there was a giant pine cone-shaped building below, which was very strange. He squinted his eyes and observed it carefully.

Suddenly, a man's voice appeared beside him.

"Good evening." It was a tall, brown-haired white man, about 30 years old, dressed like a British man.

Su Hui turned her head and gave him a polite smile, "Good evening."

"I noticed you just now. When I was washing my hands in the bathroom, I stood next to you." The man smiled and stretched out a hand, "My name is William."

Su Hui hesitated, "Eddy."

But he didn't shake hands.

"Smoking?" William handed over a cigarette, intending to light it for him.

Su Hui's face was full of tiredness, his long hair fluttered in the wind, and he pinned it behind his ear, "No, thank you."

He intends to leave, but the other party doesn't seem to intend to give up just like that, "This is my business card, can we be friends?"

Su Hui stared at him with a bit of defensiveness. William's face was completely written with the expression "I know we are the same kind", which made Su Hui tired.

He is a very strange person, he doesn't like approaching with a purpose, he doesn't like physical touch, and he wants to run away very much.In a way it does look like a cat.

But Su Hui would still abide by the basic social etiquette, so she took the business card and said bluntly, "I have a date."

"It doesn't prevent you from having new ones, does it?"

Su Hui hooked the corners of his mouth, and the inconspicuous contempt in his eyes seemed to be seductive in the eyes of others.

"Of course, it's just this one now. I've liked him for six years. You know, people only fall in love with what they can't get."

After speaking, he turned around, opened the glass door and returned to the dining bar.

Jing Ming was sitting and chatting, and just happened to see this scene through the glass. Based on the principle that watching the excitement is not a big deal, he immediately took a photo and sent it to Ning Yixiao.

[Jing Ming: Look, your ex is so charming, even handsome guys strike up a conversation when you go to the terrace to sober up. ]

Ning Yixiao actually replied to him immediately.

[Workaholic: Who asked you to take him to drink? ]

Jing Ming could almost imagine his tone.

[Jing Ming: Hee hee, it's Bella's team. ]

When they returned to their seats, Su Hui heard that they were gossiping. At first, they didn't know who they were gossiping with, but only heard words like "sent a large bouquet of flowers" and "went to the company to block people".

"Julian?" Jing Ming asked Bella, "Julian Ford? His dad has a film company in Hollywood, right?"

Bella nodded, "That's him, you remember, he was also from S University, and he was interested in Shaw at that time."

Su Hui was stunned for a moment, only then did he realize that the person who was at the center of the gossip was Ning Yixiao.

"Yes," Jing Ming looked as if he finally remembered, "He chased after Shaw, and even said he wanted to invest in him, but Ning Yixiao rejected it."

Refused……

"It's so good, I'm rushing to spend money." Bella said with a smile while drinking, "Fortunately, I didn't catch up at that time, otherwise I wouldn't even be able to find a fake engagement."

"Did he know about your fake engagement?" Chloe asked.

Bella also felt strange, "Yeah, how did he know? Shaw couldn't tell him?"

Chloe asked again, "Shaw has a connection with him?"

"Didn't she just say that this guy has gone to the Bay Area to send flowers and gifts." Jing Ming was not there, but he estimated, "I guess we have met quite a few times recently."

Su Hui felt that she was really drunk, so drunk that her mind was blocked and she couldn't say a word.

[Julian] and [Ning Yixiao] kept appearing in his mind, and the two names got closer and closer, and finally gradually turned into two small red hearts, glued together.

Hallucinations are horrible.

Jing Ming noticed his silence, felt that he shouldn't have said so much, and immediately made amends, "But I don't think he suits Shaw at all, it's unlikely."

Su Hui felt out of breath.

At this moment, a waiter stepped forward and put a glass of blue cocktail in front of Su Hui, with a tissue under it.

"Hello, this is given to you by the gentleman in the dark blue coat over there, please use it slowly."

Su Hui knew it was the person just now without looking.

"Wow, blue Hawaii."

"Eddy, you really have a lot of peach blossoms. After sitting down, several people are ready to move."

"Eddy is just charming."

Su Hui didn't feel happy. He lowered his head and glanced at the tissue next to the cup. There was a line written on it.

[You're right, so I'm not going to give up. ]

On the reverse side is William's contact information, which is different from the one on the business card and looks like a personal number.

Su Hui just wanted to drink something to divert his attention, but now that a glass of wine came, he drank half of it in one go, and put the tissue into his pocket.

All of this was naturally relayed to Ning Yixiao by Jingming.

[Jing Ming: Your backyard is going to catch fire. ]

"Where did you just talk?" Su Hui was a little drunk, leaning on the chair and looking at Bella sitting opposite.

"That's all my information." Bella shrugged, "That Julian is a very enthusiastic person. I didn't expect that after so many years, I still haven't forgotten Shaw. I suspect that he just knew that we were just acting, so he immediately took advantage of the heat." Went to find Shaw."

Chloe double-analyzed, "Is it because your engagement ceremony was too rudimentary, and the circle is so small, it's obvious to pass it on."

"Who knows? Let's not talk about them." Bella took out a paper business plan from her bag and handed it to Su Hui.

Su Hui was startled, and reached out to take it, "What is this? Could it be another installation art for the new engagement ceremony?"

Everyone laughed, and Bella quickly explained, "No, look quickly, this is my sincere invitation, Eddy, you must promise me."

Su Hui lowered his head, his current state is not suitable for reading, every word seems to be flying, and he can vaguely see the words of the model.

"model?"

"That's right." Bella moved closer, with a sincere look on her face, "I'm working on a spring/summer haute couture collection recently, and besides the catwalk, I need a memorable fashion blockbuster, because this haute couture is different from the previous ones. The design has changed a lot, so I also want to choose new faces in the selection of graphic models."

Chloe added for her, "She has interviewed four batches, and there is no candidate who fits the image in her mind."

Su Hui's first reaction was self-doubt. Even in the manic period, he didn't believe that he could cross such a large field.

"But I'm completely blank in this regard. I may not be able to give you the effect you want, and it may not necessarily meet the feeling you said."

I feel that this thing is very subtle, not to mention that he is a blank sheet of paper, without any so-called fashion expression.

"You are the most suitable, believe me." Bella reached out and flipped through the plan, and turned to the sketch at the back, "Look, I made this set with you as the inspiration, Eddy, you really It's special, trust me."

Jing Ming also nodded, "Maybe there will be some kind of spark. Look at the famous illustrator who is also a part-time model himself, and the Julian I mentioned just now is also a model and fashion director..."

However, he soon discovered that this cross-border example was not very clever.

Bella quickly said, "The theme of this season is fleeting. It needs to express fragility, lightness and instability. I don't think anyone can interpret these keywords better than you. Just take a group of photos and Chloe palms Mirror. Very simple."

Su Hui felt dizzy and couldn't make a proper decision.

"I'll read the proposal carefully after I go back, and then I'll give you an answer, okay?"

When he went back, he took a ride with Jingming. The overly flashy sports car gave him a great sense of insecurity. Fortunately, Jingming is very interesting and good at chatting.

Arriving near the apartment, he stood on the side of the road and bid farewell to Jing Ming, walked slowly into the building, was stopped by the property's receiving and dispatching personnel, and handed him a package.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome, actually it arrived on the 28th of last month, and you haven't picked it up."

Su Hui felt a little apologetic, "I've been too busy recently, I'm really sorry."

"nothing."

The phone vibrated suddenly, he took the package and walked to the elevator, freed one hand to put on the headset, it was Ning Yixiao.

Su Hui was slightly tipsy from drinking, and his tone was lazy, as light as a feather.

"what happened?"

Ning Yixiao paused, "Didn't you see the message I sent?"

Su Hui originally wanted to watch it now, but she couldn't spare her hands, so she just forgot, "No, I'm outside and didn't check my phone."

"I see you've adjusted well to life in New York, too."

Su Hui didn't hear anything wrong with his tone, and his reaction was a little slow. He got out of the elevator, returned home, and accepted the ice cream's warm embrace.

"Hey, miss me?" He always spoke to ice cream in a very friendly tone, but now because of the alcohol, it sounded a little more bewitching.

"Do you miss me? Do you want to hug..."

Ning Yixiao was silent for a moment, and then spoke again, with a deeper voice, "Su Hui."

"Huh?" Su Hui was burying her head in the ice cream's neck.

"Don't go out to drink casually, don't you know what you look like drunk?"

"What does it look like?" Su Hui smiled lightly, "Do you mean that she will pester you and want to sleep with you?"

He heard Ning Yixiao's breathing became obvious, but he wasn't sure if it was an inhalation or a sigh.

"That's not what I meant." He explained patiently, "You're very defenseless when you're drunk, and you can do whatever you say, and you'll easily suffer."

"Losing..." Su Hui lazily repeated his words, lowered his head to unpack the package, and saw a card with printed characters on it.

[Eddy, Happy New Year.

-FromSean]

Only then did Su Hui remember that Sean had sent a gift, and she felt much better. She took out the blue gift box from the package, tore it open, and found a small booklet inside, with a hand-painted butterfly on the cover.

To be precise, it is a photo album, because after opening it, he found that it turned out to be a photo of the work he exhibited in Seattle before. It was a "net" he made, and it was placed in a white room with a large floor-to-ceiling glass behind it. Window, outside is the beautiful sea.

Photos were printed on each page, and at first glance there was no difference between the front and back pages, but Su Hui noticed a small hand-painted butterfly in the lower right corner, and there was a slight difference between the front and back pages.

Not knowing where the idea came from, Su Hui bent the booklet, pressed her thumb to the side, then let go, and let the pages flip through quickly.

At this moment, all the photos were combined into a smooth dynamic picture - the countless paper butterflies he stacked were flying in the wind, and the background of the photos went from sunrise to sunset, and then returned to the gloomy night.

And the little butterfly in the lower right corner, as a clue, dances lightly as the page is flipped.

Hundreds of photos make up a complete "day" of this work.

It is not easy to make such a good effect. Su Hui is very clear that it takes a lot of time to shoot at fixed points, select the photos, and set the position and arrangement of each photo to the extent that there is no error, otherwise the flipping It won't be so smooth afterwards.

Su Hui's heart was moved and sympathetic. He never thought that someone would take his work so seriously and give feedback in this way, just like taking a beautiful day and sharing it with him.

The theme of this work is "Your Birth", and he just received it on his birthday, which is like a birthday present.

"Su Hui?"

Ning Yixiao called him a few times, but found that there was no response, and his mood became depressed. He deliberately knocked down the cup on the table and made a noise.

Su Hui came back to his senses, "Huh? I'm here, what's wrong?"

"It's okay, I accidentally knocked over something."

Ning Yixiao was a bit apprehensive, it turned out that this person would also be distracted when he was on the phone with him, "What are you doing?"

Su Hui flipped through the photo album again, and said with a smile, "Look at my gift."

"Gift?"

Ning Yixiao thought of the photo Jingming sent him, that disgusting cocktail, suppressing his emotions and pretending to be relaxed.

"Teacher Su is very charming. She receives gifts everywhere she goes. Who gave it this time?"

Su Hui was in a daze, thinking of Bella's gossip in the bar for no reason, and then thinking of the big bouquet of flowers in Ning Yixiao's office, which was a gift from Ning Yixiao, so she was not so happy.

Relying on Ning Yixiao's absence, Su Hui deliberately provoked him by drinking, and flirtatiously returned what Ning Yixiao had said to him.

"you guess?"